Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
I have been smiling since Sunday and I want to say a very BIG thank you
to someone who has given me a lifetime subscription to Daily Kos.
I am very touched and pleased.
It is a very great kindness that I didn't expect.
If anyone knows who it was, please pass on my heartfelt thanks!
This very kind person sent me a message that is also very kind
and a comfort:
Thank you cfk for your wonderful Bookflurries diaries. May you write them for many years to come.
I really appreciate the gift and the kind words!
On to the theme…
I have a whole list of characters that I am still upset about being killed off in stories that I love by authors I respect.
It seems that to have suspense we must worry about the health and well-being of many characters in a book or series or it is thought we would not read the book.
I beg to differ. There are many bad things physically and mentally that can happen to keep the suspense going. I do not need a favorite character to be killed to keep reading.
When is killing a character necessary and when is it gratuitous to sell books?
I wrote a story a while back and when I got to the end of it, I realized
why my hero had been behaving the way he had in the last two chapters. He was going to die. I was horrified. But it made sense. So I did it. I killed him. I think if I ever tried to publish the story I would have to save him so as not to be torn up by angry readers, and yet, it fit. It hurt, but it fit. So I do understand that some characters must die.
But…
If I have traveled a long way with the character and gone through some really hard times, then I think I deserve to have the hero, however battered, survive.
While writing this diary, I realized that I have been lucky that so many characters have survived. I looked at my list of books and was amazed. Whew!
What characters do you mourn?
SPOILERS: Please scroll down to diaries of the week if you don’t want to read a list of dead characters. I have tried not to include more recent stories though I still mourn some characters from Penny's Bury Your Dead, Stephenson's Anathem, Hambly's Wet Grave, and Naylor's Mama Day.
Characters that I understood had to die, but I am upset anyway
Beth in Little Women
Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities
Duke Leto Atreides I in Dune
Boromir in Lord of the Rings
Eustacia Vye in Return of the Native
Anna Karenina
Starbuck in Moby Dick
Jack from Titanic
Dally and Johnny in The Outsiders
Lennie in Of Mice and Men
..............
Characters that should NOT have died
Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop by Dickens
Dumbledore, Fred, Lupin, Dobby, Hedwig, Sirius in Harry Potter
Hercule Poirot
Tom in To Kill a Mockingbird
Derrial Book and Hoban Washburne in Serenity the movie from Firefly
Inman in Cold Mountain
Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars
Lymond’s son in the Lymond Chronicles
Bambi’s mother
Karen Hansen Clement in Exodus
Brent Tarleton in Gone with the Wind
Jack Morgan in Hunter's Moon
...............
Book series or films I quit reading or watching because too many characters died
George Martin’s after the first book.
I did not watch the last two Harry Potter films or the last Star Wars film.
...............
Characters who were resurrected
Sherlock Holmes
Westley in Princess Bride
Gandalf
Tasslehoff Burrfoot the kender from The Dragon Lance Chronicles due to time travel (at least for a while)
Prince Lír in The Last Unicorn
................
I expect a lively discussion, tonight.
Diaries of the Week:
Write On! The joy of brevity.
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Graphic novel app brings Dickensian London to life
http://www.rawstory.com/...
Thursday Classical Music OPUS 62: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
by Dumbo
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Kos Katalogue -- Big Plans for 99% Shopping!
by Sara R
http://www.dailykos.com/...
R&BLers Support DK Subscription Fund Raiser
by Limelite
http://www.dailykos.com/...
With wonderful pictures!
The Rebirth of Community
by One Pissed Off Liberal
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Horsefeathers says thank you…funny!
Did you get your hair cut or something?
by Horsefeathers
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Mnemosyne found this excellent article about the Todds who write the stories about WW I with Ian and Bess.
Charles Todd – Two authors, two series
http://lindabrinson.com/...
NOTE: plf515 has book talk on Wednesday mornings early.